Old Pak hand Robin Raphel returns
Robin Raphel, who in the 1990s irked India by describing Kashmir as “disputed territory,” is back.
Raphel is joining President Barack Obama's administration as a coordinator for
nonmilitary aid to Pakistan. According to a Foreign Policy report, she will be a
part of special envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke's team.

Pak wants talks, but on equal terms: Qureshi
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said his country wanted to hold talks with India on “equal terms, with honour and dignity”. “We’re not begging India to come to the negotiation table. We want dialogue on the basis of sovereign equality for the good of the people of both countries as well as peace and stability in the region,” he told a meeting of the parliamentary committee on national security here”.

Oz assures Krishna on safety of students
Cairns, August 7
A concerned India today took up with Australia the spate of attacks on its nationals pursuing studies here when External Affairs Minister SM Krishna and Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd met to discuss the issue as well as other areas of cooperation like nuclear energy and trade.

New LTTE boss captured
Kumaran Padmanathan, alias KP, the man the LTTE named to replace its slain leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, was captured in an East Asian country and is now in the custody of the Sri Lankan defence authorities in Colombo, the government announced on Friday.

Robin Raphel, who in the 1990s irked India by describing Kashmir as “disputed territory,” is back.

Raphel is joining President Barack Obama's administration as a coordinator for nonmilitary aid to Pakistan. According to a Foreign Policy report, she will be a part of special envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke's team. She will work out of the US Embassy in Islamabad, and is expected to work with USAID, the US Department of Agriculture, the Treasury Department and Pentagon to ensure that all programmes receiving US aid are consistent with US policy goals in the region.

Raphel served in President Bill Clinton’s administration in a post specially created for her: Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia. The post now includes Central Asia in its title and is occupied by Robert Blake.

At a White House briefing on April 11, 1995, Raphael was asked what the latest position of the Clinton administration was on Kashmir. “Actually, our position has remained constant; the US position even before the Clinton administration has remained constant,” she said. “We view the entire formal princely state of Jammu and Kashmir as disputed territory. In our view, India and Pakistan need to get together and have serious negotiations on how to resolve this dispute and other problems between them.”

She insisted it was “important,” and a “practical necessity that the wishes of the people of Jammu and Kashmir be taken into account in this process.”

Sumit Ganguly, a visiting scholar at the Centre on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at Stanford University, recalled that in an earlier appearance at the Overseas Press Club of America, Raphel had made a “singularly maladroit statement about Kashmir’s accession to India.”

“In the aftermath of that episode, the Indians tried their best to keep her at an arms length. Since that time, most policymakers in New Delhi have viewed her as being intransigent toward India,”Ganguly said.

Intelligence sources note that the Taliban under Mullah Omar was born on Raphel’s watch. Author Steve Coll notes in his book “Ghost Wars” that Raphel told a closed meeting of the UN Security Council in 1992, “It is not in the interests of Afghanistan or any of us here that the Taliban be isolated.” The rest, as they say, is history.

Ganguly believes Raphel’s appointment reflects “the paucity of South Asia expertise in the State Department.” He contends her appointment is a consequence of her closeness to the Clintons. Raphel was roommates in England with Clinton's Oxford girlfriend and also shares a close relationship with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The Foreign Policy report says Raphel was the part of a group that included Centcom commander Gen David Petraeus, US ambassador to Pakistan Ann Patterson, and Blake, all of whom Holbrooke convened for a secret, 11-hour policy discussion on Pakistan on Monday at Fort McNair, the US Army base in Washington that houses the National Defense University, where Raphel was a vice president from 2000 to 2003.

Raphel, who was posted to the US Embassy in New Delhi early in her career, is considered a close friend of Pakistan. She began her federal government career as an economic analyst for the CIA, focusing on oil-rich Indonesia, and later joined the State Department as a foreign service officer, working on detail to USAID as an economic/financial analyst in Pakistan. A former husband from whom she was divorced at the time, US Ambassador to Pakistan Arnold Raphel, was killed in a plane crash in 1988 while travelling with Pakistani President Zia ul-Haq.

In 2007-2008, Raphel worked as a lobbyist and consultant for Cassidy and Associates, where she was a vice president. The Pakistani Embassy in Washington had contracted Cassidy and Associates for $1.2 million to lobby on behalf of Pervez Musharraf's government for a year. Raphel was to lead this effort but it was cancelled after political developments in Pakistan.

Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said his country wanted to hold talks with India on “equal terms, with honour and dignity”. “We’re not begging India to come to the negotiation table. We want dialogue on the basis of sovereign equality for the good of the people of both countries as well as peace and stability in the region,” he told a meeting of the parliamentary committee on national security here”.

After making a policy statement before the panel, Qureshi responded to several questions from members. During his testimony before the panel, he said: “Undoubtedly our foreign policy is not apologetic as we want strong and stable relations with all countries but on equal terms, especially with India.”

He termed the meeting between the prime ministers of Pakistan and India in Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt an “enriching sign, thus positive and constructive”. “Pakistan is a responsible state and wants better relations with its neighbour (India) but begging for restoration of talks isn’t our cup of tea”, he added.

Saying the army was “playing a remarkable role in war against terrorism, the minister lauded the “services and sacrifices” of Pakistan’s armed forces. He made it clear to other countries that “no one should dictate to us,” adding Pakistan had “paid a heavy price in war against terrorism, thus rendering invaluable sacrifices in this regard”.

“The Al-Qaeda leadership doesn’t exist in Pakistan,” he asserted. “We have virtually broken the extremists’ backbone in country, though some elements are still left which will be defeated soon.”

“Undoubtedly Pakistan would welcome a new democratic leadership in Afghanistan through peaceful elections. A strong and stable Afghanistan is not only in the prime interest of Pakistan but also that of the entire South Asian region”, he added.

Replying to a question from reporters about the Bombay terror attacks in November 2008, Qureshi said Pakistan had asked India to provide more solid proof for the latter’s investigations. Foreign secretaries of both countries are scheduled to meet next month.

On reports of deployment of over 1,000 US marines at the American embassy in Islamabad, Qureshi said the United States is increasing the strength of its embassy staff in Pakistan.

Cairns, August 7
A concerned India today took up with Australia the spate of attacks on its nationals pursuing studies here when External Affairs Minister SM Krishna and Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd met to discuss the issue as well as other areas of cooperation like nuclear energy and trade.

Krishna, the first senior leader to visit Australia to convey India’s concerns on the student issue, met Rudd as well as his Australian counterpart Stephen Smith on the sidelines of Pacific Island Forum in this northern Australian city.

The External Affairs Minister said India was “deeply concerned” about the security of its students in Australia.

Australian Foreign Minister Smith said Canberra wanted to take the relations with India to the frontline.

On the student issue, Smith, who has accepted the invitation to visit India in October as a part of the Australia-India Framework Dialogue, said Australia continued to be a safe and secure destination for overseas students.

Krishna said the matter was not just about the safety, but also related to the quality of educational experience that many Indian students were facing.

Krishna said Rudd and Smith assured him that their government would look into all aspects of the student issue and measures would be put in place to address it. Australia will mount three high-profile visits to India this year as part of its efforts to reinforce ties with New Delhi.
— PTI

Kumaran Padmanathan, alias KP, the man the LTTE named to replace its slain leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, was captured in an East Asian country and is now in the custody of the Sri Lankan defence authorities in Colombo, the government announced on Friday.

The news of the dramatic development came after state television announced on Thursday night that KP was arrested. On Friday afternoon, Defence Spokesman Minister Keheliya Rambukwella said Pathmanathaan who was the chief arms procurer of the LTTE is being held in Colombo for questioning after being arrested in an unnamed South Asian country and being extradited to Sri Lanka.

MJ set for burial in Forest Lawn
London: Pop icon Michael Jackson is finally set to be laid to rest, more than six weeks after he died. Members of the Jackson family have decided to bury him at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park cemetery in Los Angeles’ Hollywood Hills, reported Contactmusic. The pop icon’s family was reportedly filing paperwork allowing officials to proceed with the burial, said the report.
— PTI